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Jellyfish have drifted along on ocean currents for millions of years, even before dinosaurs lived on the Earth. The jellylike creatures pulse along on ocean currents and are abundant in cold and warm ocean water, in deep water, and along coastlines. But despite their name, jellyfish aren’t actually fish—they’re invertebrates, or animals with no backbones. Jellyfish have tiny stinging cells in their tentacles to stun or paralyze their prey before they eat them. Inside their bell-shaped body is an opening that is its mouth. They eat and discard waste from this opening. As jellyfish squirt water from their mouths they are propelled forward. Tentacles hang down from the smooth baglike body and sting their prey. Jellyfish stings can be painful to humans and sometimes very dangerous. But jellyfish don’t purposely attack humans. Most stings occur when people accidentally touch a jellyfish, but if the sting is from a dangerous species, it can be deadly. Jellyfish digest their food very quickly. They wouldn’t be able to float if they had to carry a large, undigested meal around. They dine on fish, shrimp, crabs and tiny plants. Sea turtles relish the taste of jellyfish. Some jellyfish are clear, but others are in vibrant colors such as pink, yellow, blue, and purple, and often are luminescent. The Chinese have fished jellyfish for 1,700 years. They are considered a delicacy and are used in Chinese medicine.
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Coyotes once lived only in prairies and deserts of the western United States and in Mexico. Today they thrive almost anywhere in North America. Adaptability—that’s the main reason for the success of the coyote. A coyote is naturally adaptable because it eats such a wide range of food. If it can’t find mice or voles to eat, lizards, insects, or even garbage will do. In Native American stories coyotes are clever and tricky. Some coyotes kill calves and lambs on people’s ranches and farms. For a century people have tried to kill coyotes by using poison, traps, and guns. Still coyotes continue to thrive. This trickster of Native American tales often gets fooled—but it always bounces back. Coyotes vary in body size from 32 to 37 inches (81 to 94 centimeters). Their tails can be up to 16 inches long (41 centimeters).
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Pufferfish can inflate into a ball shape to evade predators. Also known as blowfish, these clumsy swimmers fill their elastic stomachs with huge amounts of water (and sometimes air) and blow themselves up to several times their normal size. Some species also have spines on their skin to ward off predators. Even if a predator gobbles up a puffer before it inflates, it won’t enjoy the snack. Most pufferfish contain a toxic substance that makes them foul tasting and potentially deadly to other fish. The toxin is deadly to humans. There is enough poison in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote. In Japan, they are called fugu and are a very expensive, delicious treat. They are prepared only by trained, licensed fugu chefs. Most puffers are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. Some species of pufferfish are considered vulnerable due to pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing, but most populations are considered stable.
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The pileated woodpecker is one of the largest woodpecker species in North America and its look is unmistakable—a large black bird with white on each side of its neck and a red crest on its head. When it flies, white flashes are visible under its wings. The sound of the pileated woodpecker’s hammering carries a long distance through the woods where they live. They drum to attract mates and to establish the boundaries of their territory—warning other males away. They use their beaks to peck and dig under bark to find carpenter ants, beetle larvae, and other insects and will often dig large, rectangular holes in trees to uncover their meals. Some holes are so big that they weaken small, young trees. The birds also strip pieces of bark from trees looking for food. Generally, however, pileated woodpeckers help keep a forest healthy by eating wood-boring insects. A nesting pair of pileated woodpeckers usually makes a nesting hole in a large, older tree. During the day, both parents take turns incubating, or sitting on, the eggs to keep them warm. At night, only the male incubates the eggs. They generally lay four eggs at a time, which take about two weeks to hatch.
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National Geographic Kids
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Indian peafowl are a species in a group of birds called pheasants. The males are called peacocks, while the females are called peahens. Together, they are peafowl. Peafowl are among the largest of all birds that fly. (Ostriches, emus, and other such birds are bigger, but cannot fly.) The beautiful feathers that cover the tails of a peacock are 5 feet (1.5 meters) long—longer than the bird’s body—and can be displayed in a spectacular fan of brilliant colors. These long feathers actually grow from the bird’s back not the tail. He elevates them by raising the much shorter tail feathers underneath them. Peahens are more drab than their male counterparts, with mostly brown on their back with a white belly. Females don’t have long tail feathers, but they do have a crest on their head and green neck feathers. Indian peafowl are native to India and Sri Lanka, in South Asia. They’ve been introduced to other countries, usually as exhibits in parks, zoos, and nature centers or as domestic pets. The head and body of adult peafowl range from 3 to 4 feet long and their tail can be 5 feet long.
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Christmas Island red crabs are famous throughout Australia and the world for their bright red color and for their spectacular annual migration to the sea. Millions of crabs become rivers of red as they move from the island’s interior rainforests to the ocean to breed and lay eggs. During migration, red crabs climb over and around obstacles in their way, following the same migration paths every year. Christmas Island red crabs live on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s northern coast, about 240 miles (380 kilometers) south of Java, Indonesia. Red crabs must keep their bodies moist, so they wait for the rainy season to provide conditions that are ideal for the difficult journey. A single female can lay up to 100,000 eggs.
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The head louse makes itself at home on the human scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes, which is where you’ll find this annoying parasite. An estimated six million or more children are infested each year in the United States alone. While nestled close to the scalp, the louse feeds every few hours on a steady supply of human blood. Head lice do not spread diseases, but they can cause itching and other mild symptoms and often must be treated with medication. Head lice go through three life stages. Over the course of its lifetime, females may lay 50 to 150 eggs—or nits—on hairs the scalp. The eggs can resemble dandruff. After about a week, the eggs hatch and release nymphs, which are roughly the size of a pinhead. After another week, the nymphs grow into adults that are about the size of sesame seeds. Each louse has six legs and each leg contains its own claws! Ouch! Head lice often spread from person to person by direct head-to-head contact, though they can be transmitted through clothing, brushes, beds, or other items that have been in contact with an infested person. With a constant supply of nourishing blood, adult head lice can live on a person’s head for up to a month!
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Crouching on a tree branch, a hairy animal that looks like a cross between a raccoon and a rat lifts a long finger and taps on the trunk. It’s not politely knocking to see who’s home. Instead it’s trying to locate hollow spots beneath the bark where insects live. (It can tell that it’s found a cavity by the sound of the tapping.) Once it detects a hollow, the animal rips away the bark with its teeth and gobbles up the bugs. This curious creature is known as an aye-aye. FREAKY FINGERS Aye-ayes can be found only in the forests of Madagascar, an island nation off the coast of Africa. The animals rarely descend from their treetop digs to the forest floor. Only active at night, they spend the day snoozing on branches in nests made of leaves. When darkness falls the creatures forage for food in the treetops. In addition to bugs, aye-ayes feast on fruit such as mango, scooping pulp from the juicy meal with their bony fingers. Without its distinct digits, snagging grub would be much harder for the aye-aye. And the animal’s fingers aren’t the only funny feature that helps it survive in the wild. Big, yellow eyes let it see in the dark. Giant, sensitive ears help the animal detect prey. And a long, bushy tail allows the aye-aye to balance as it scampers along tree branches. IT’S ALL RELATIVE The aye-aye’s odd traits may be useful to the animal. But they’ve also caused confusion. The animal’s rat-like teeth and squirrel-like tail led scientists to first assume that it was a rodent. But these animals are actually primates—the same group of species that humans belong to! With its weird looks and oddball behavior, the aye-aye is one relative with a serious range of strange. Text by Andrea Silen / NGS Staff
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